Hey! Reader! How are you? Here’s something you might want to know about this story: the name of our vampire hero is Keskiyö. It means ‘midnight’ in Finnish. I pronounce it as ‘kesk’ (as in desk) E-oh.

Keskiyö the vampire had everything she could possibly want.
She lived in a fine old house with secret doors, hidden cellars, and mysterious attics all to herself.
She could play wherever she liked and go to bed whenever she wanted to.
Keskiyö was the luckiest girl in all the world.
Except for one small thing – Keskiyö had no friends.

Keskiyö had tried making friends, but it never worked out.
Vampire sleepovers were disastrous because who wants to sleep in a COFFIN?
Vampire graveyard games were catastrophic because who wants to play in a GRAVEYARD?
And as for vampire tea parties…

…well those didn’t end well either because vampires like to DRINK BLOOD.
It was so sad. All Keskiyö wanted was a friend to play with.
But how could she get a friend? What did normal children like to do?

Perhaps they could… feed the ducks on a sunny day? BUT OH NO! Vampires don’t like doing that.
Perhaps they could… hang upside down in trees at night? BUT OH NO! Normal children don’t like doing that.
Perhaps they could… do their homework together? BUT OH NO! NOBODY likes doing that.
Keskiyö thought hard until she knew exactly what everyone liked.

All night long, Keskiyö kept busy.
She made the WEIRD kind of food normal children liked to eat.
She planned the STRANGE kind of games normal children liked to play.
She even collected the PECULIAR kind of music normal children liked to listen to.

Finally she made a sign:
‘Fancy-dress Party for Normal children at Sunset. Everyone Welcome!’
and hung it upon the gate (next to the skeleton).

That evening, after she woke, Keskiyö opened her door.
Outside were lots of children, lots of really excited children.
But the moment Keskiyö let them inside and their parents said goodbye…

…they went CRAZY.
When Keskiyö said, “Shall we play pass-the-parcel?”, little Hattie Hark tore away all the paper to find the prize, and all the other children leapt around like kangaroos in a hurricane.

When Keskiyö said, “Let’s play musical statues,” Felicity Flicker and Christopher Candle squirted everyone with water and all the other children ran away shrieking like monkeys in a whirlpool.

So Keskiyö tried one more thing.
“CAKE!” she said. “Who would like some cake?”

But there was no cake.
Gordon Gobblelot and Sam Slurples and Tabitha Tumfull and ALL the other children had already eaten it.

Keskiyö threw her arms into the air.
“PLEASE STOP!” she said.
But nobody listened.
“STOP RIGHT NOW!”
Still nobody listened. Nobody at all. So Keskiyö became normal…
…her sort of normal.

VAMPIRE NORMAL.
She bared her fangs bared and her eyes glowed red.
And the children stopped and stared and then ran away home.
All except one…

…a little ghost called See-Thru who had been there all along.
“Shall we play?” See-Thru asked.
“Oh yes!” Keskiyö said.
And so they did. They climbed trees at night, played hide-and-seek in graveyards, and had tea parties whenever they liked.

See-Thru never slept, he was never scared, and he didn’t in the least mind if Keskiyö tried to bite him.
Keskiyö liked See-Thru.
He was just like a normal friend.

—

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Illustration courtesy and copyright, Jools Wilson. View more of her work here.